What manual work really costs

$21.64

median hourly wage for a general office clerk

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025 (national, all industries, before benefits)

Start with a simple number. That wage is before benefits, and benefits add real money on top: 25.9% of compensation goes to benefits at private employers with 1 to 49 workers.

Run those two national figures together and one full-time office clerk comes to very roughly sixty thousand dollars a year. That's our math from a median wage and an average benefit share, so treat it as an estimate. Your local number will differ.

The owner's time is the expensive part

22 hours a month is what U.S. small business owners report spending on financial management. That's a small survey and the hours are self-estimated, but most owners will recognize the feeling.

Then there's the paperwork that comes with the business itself: 50 hours is the IRS estimate of the average yearly burden for a small S corporation return. The IRS says most filers come in lower than that average.

Hiring isn't an easy way out

32% of small business owners had job openings they could not fill. Even when you have the budget, the person may not be there.

What to check this week

• Write down every task someone in your office repeats each day.
• Put an hourly cost beside each one.
• Add it up for one normal week.